Let It Out

Lyrics
Like a balloon with too much air
An apple pie, lots of steam in there
A subway train with no room to spare

Jack in the box, snakes in a can
Fruit in a peel, shell-wrapped pecan
Bird in a cage, well, what’s the plan?

Do like the seeds from a flower
And clouds about to shower
The geyser at the geysering hour
Oh

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Save it for later and there’ll be a kapow
Let it out

You’ve got some loose and dangly teeth
Some CO2 every time you breath
About to cough, hiccup or sneeze

Some sweaty socks with your feet in
Whatever else you’re secretin’
And a while after drinking or eatin’
Oh

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Save it for later and there’ll be a kapow
Let it out

And when you’ve got something you feel
And you’re not sure just what is real
And you don’t know how you can deal

Just let it fly like a rocket
Reaching escape velocity
Then finally nothing will stop it
Yeah

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Keep it inside and one day you’ll have a cow

Let it out
Let it out
It’s so much better if you get it out now
Let it out
Let it out
Save it for later and there’ll be a kapow
Let it out
Let it out

StoryThis song and the album it comes from were written using Appreciative Inquiry and Internal Family Systems. With IFS, we can talk about different parts of ourselves as if they are separate people. Hopefully that clarifies why these stories at times refer to he, she and we!

After writing the first song for the album, the artist/creator part of me stepped up, naturally wanting to get involved. He was concerned that so many other projects over the years hadn’t succeeded as he’d hoped, and so over time he’d become a bit reluctant to keep creating and expressing himself. But these days he was feeling like he could express himself simply because it was what he wanted to do. In fact, he felt a little dumbfounded, because in some ways writing this song would be the first time he could really feel free to say whatever he truly wanted.

As we did our Appreciative Inquiry on his song, he started thinking about that freedom, freedom of self-expression. Just getting out what’s inside because it wants to come out, instead of putting it off and wondering if or when the opportunity might be right. Once it’s out, it’s where it needs to be, and then he’d have fulfilled his purpose in life, and everything else would be gravy, bonus. Just the fact that he’d been that free even one time would be enough. It seemed to him like escape velocity — it doesn’t matter whether a rocket hits that speed early or late in its journey, and it doesn’t have to keep going that fast. As long as it gets there for any particular moment, it ends up free of Earth’s gravity, and it can’t be pulled back down.

He also really valued that the song itself was an expression of this idea, and could be so even musically. He wanted the song to be moving, but real, maybe even a bit intense, showing the strength of that feeling of freedom.

Immediately, the title occurred to him, and he thought about the song “Walk On” by U2, which was both strong and emotional. Soon, he was thinking about all sorts of things that need to be let out — how air may need to be let out of a balloon so it doesn’t pop, an appendix needing to come out because it’s going to burst, cancer and bullets needing to come out of bodies to get them healthy. But not only things that don’t belong somewhere. The seeds of a flower, the sun from behind the clouds. Even sweating and going to the bathroom. With so these and many other things, it’s perfectly normal that they show up in those places, but they still then need to be let out also. When something is pent up inside, it has to be let out so that we can become or stay healthy.

From there, the song more or less wrote itself. He was a bit surprised that his song wasn’t more directly about creativity, but he realized that, in a sense, there is no creativity at all without the freedom of expressing who you really are, so the song rang really true for him.

Share your own stories — of art or other things that have inspired you, of how you came to do something artistic or creative, of how the OHB’s songs have impacted you, whatever you like — at the Fan Clan.

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